


I'll stand by You

by phlebotinxm



Series: Fitzsimmons AU [4]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Academy Era, Academy Fitzsimmons, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, SHIELD Academy Era (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:47:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28434129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phlebotinxm/pseuds/phlebotinxm
Summary: Fitz walked home in a daze.Around him, the cold winter wind wrapped itself around his slim frame, enveloping him in an ice coat that was nothing compared to the dredd inside of him. It seemed that ever since Jemma had pronounced the fatidic words, Fitz’s entire vision of the world had been altered. Each step he took towards his apartment made him think about what had brought him here today, in this situation.
Relationships: Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons
Series: Fitzsimmons AU [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2030545
Comments: 6
Kudos: 40





	I'll stand by You

**Author's Note:**

> Hello agaaiiiin! It's me, the most annoying fanfic writer of all time lol
> 
> I had this little thing in my head for a few days, so I wrote it (duh). This was inspired by me rewatching glee for the hundredth time when I worked out (we all deal with quarantine our own way I guess...?) and seeing the scene with Finn singing "I'll stand by you" to Finn's ultrasound. I'll let you guess what's this small thing about... 
> 
> Once again English isn't my first language and this little thing is unbeta'd, so I'm sorry for the eventual mistakes you will find in this.
> 
> I hope you'll like it! xx

Fitz walked home in a daze. 

Around him, the cold winter wind wrapped itself around his slim frame, enveloping him in an ice coat that was nothing compared to the dredd inside of him. It seemed that ever since Jemma had pronounced the fatidic words, Fitz’s entire vision of the world had been altered. Each step he took towards his apartment made him think about what had brought him here today, in this situation. 

Fitz had moved to the United States by himself when he was just 16, back when he had big hopes for his future and thought he would change the world somehow. The SHIELD Academy had been a dream come true, and he’d pushed aside his fear of the unknown to embrace the destiny he’d set for himself the moment he set foot on the campus. His first few months at the Academy had been amazing, apart from his loneliness. He’d always been an odd bird, mostly because of his intelligence and young age compared to most of the students around him. Which was why he’d been so fascinated the first time he’d seen  _ her _ . 

Jemma Simmons was a child prodigy, just like him. She’d arrived not much after him, and he’d immediately tried to get her attention. She looked so sure of herself and so full of confidence that Fitz had fallen half in love right away. The other half came not much after, as Jemma asked him on a date and got on her tiptoes to kiss him after he’d walked her home. 

Dating Jemma was something Fitz hadn’t seen coming. If it had been up to him, he feared he would have sulked and daydreamed about her for years before eventually making his move. Thank God Jemma had probably seen it coming, and took matters into her own hands. The first kiss she’d given him had been the open door to many more, and now five and half years later and after being both accepted to Sci ops, here they were. Fitz was happy, happier than he’d ever been in his life. He got to be in the lab with his life partner who happened to be the most brilliant person he’d ever known, and unsurprisingly, they both were top of their classes. Until the morning of, Fitz firmly believed that nothing could have troubled this peaceful life they had. 

As he climbed the stairs leading to his and Jemma’s apartment, Fitz played with the keys in his palms a little bit. Jemma was off to the lab to get her mind off things, and Fitz suspected she wanted to give him some space as well. As he walked inside their flat and threw the keys in the bowl next to the door, Fitz felt the weight of the world crash onto his shoulders. Whenever things like this happened, there were only two persons in the world he could confide in. One was the object of his worries though, so he’d have to talk to the second one. 

Walking to the room after toeing off his shoes, Fitz crashed onto the bed face first. It was mid afternoon in Glasgow, and he wasted no time in calling his mum. The phone rang for a handful of seconds, but it felt like an eternity as Fitz stared at the pastel wall of his and Jemma’s bedroom. There was a selfie of them framed there, and he distinctly remembered the day they’d taken it. It was right after one of Mr. Vaughn’s exams, and they’d been so happy to hand over their sheets and walk out of there that Jemma had proposed to take a picture in commemoration. They weren’t even together back then, but Fitz knew from the look on his face in the frozen picture that he was already head over heels in love with her. 

_ “Hello?” _ Maggie said as she picked up, her tone instantly warming up his entire body. He was still cold from the wind outside, but he figuratively shivered from head to toes as well in regards to the conversation he was about to have.

“Hi, mum. It’s me.” 

His mum huffed on the other end of the phone.  _ “Yes, Leo. I know it’s you, silly, I’ve seen your name on the screen.”  _

Even the slight teasing couldn’t push him to smile, though. There was a time when his mum could have gotten him to smile even though tears, because she always set her mind to the task whenever she saw him sulk around the place. 

_ “To what do I owe the pleasure?”  _

If it were any other kind of day, Fitz would tease her about expecting his calls. He didn’t this time. 

“I… I needed to talk to you,” he admitted in a breath. Tears pricked his eyes, and he blinked them away furiously.

_ “Leo, is everything alright?”  _

The soft tone of his mum’s voice coupled with the exhaustion of the day was too much for Fitz, and he felt his throat close up with emotions as treacherous tears slid down his cheeks. “I’ve made a mistake mum,” he sobbed into the receiver. 

_ “Leo?” _ his mum sounded worried now, and he tried as hard as he could to get his breathing under control. There was no point in worrying her even more, but sometimes it felt good to have a good cry.  _ “Leo darling, what happened?” _

Fitz swallowed back his tears with difficulty. “Jemma’s pregnant.” 

He didn’t think he was imagining the short intake of a breath his mum took on the other end of the line. 

* * *

Once upon a time, when he was nine, Fitz’s father walked out of the door never to come back into his or his mum’s life. To this day, he still considered this as the most traumatizing day of his life, and no matter how sure he was that his life was better off without him he still ached for his presence at times. His mum had always been an amazing parent, even more once his father was out of the picture, but Fitz had promised himself he would never do the same to his kids if he ever had some. 

As he nervously waited for Jemma to come home from the lab, Fitz remembered this promise clear as day. His conversation with his mum had felt good, better even, and he’d been able to let it go and truly cry like a child over the phone with her. Maggie Fitz hadn’t once judged him for it, and she’d only pushed him to talk to her and confess what he was truly feeling when it came to this entire situation. 

There was one thing for certain, and it was that Fitz was terrified. He wasn’t ready to be a father at  _ all _ , and he hadn’t even imagined having children in the near future. Children were loud, they were tiny and squirmy and required a lot of attention. He and Jemma barely had time to go on dates some days, how could they handle a child? Who would even keep said child when they were at the lab, and afterwards if they worked full time?

But at the same time, the idea of having a child with Jemma  _ should _ have sounded more frightening than it did. He was barely 22, after all, but the idea of seeing Jemma’s belly swell with his child made his toes curl in his shoes. He could already picture a little girl with blonde hair and her mum’s honey warm eyes, sporting Jemma’s little nose and his dimples. Fitz had never really thought about having a child of his own, especially so soon, but somehow he couldn’t get the idea out of his head now. 

At last, the front door of their flat opened to reveal Jemma, and Fitz straightened on their bed. 

“Fitz?” She called, hesitant. 

“In the bedroom.”

When she walked in, putting her bag by the door and shrugging off her coat, Jemma looked dead tired. She’d been exhausted in the last couple of weeks no matter how much she slept at night, and they finally knew why. But somehow,  _ knowing _ why made Fitz’s heart clench with something he couldn’t quite define in his chest. 

“Are you alright?” He asked softly. He was pleased to see a small smile stretch the corner of Jemma’s lips as he did. Somehow, even such a bomb couldn’t quite tame their complicity. 

“ Yeah. I needed some time alone in the lab, to be quite honest.”

Unable to do anything else, Fitz nodded. “I understand. I… I called my mum.”

Jemma froze midway through the action of taking off her blouse, looking back at him with alarm. 

“I needed… I needed to tell someone about it, and my mum’s always been my confidant.” Jemma knew that. She’d often found it absolutely charming, too. However, he could see in the way her body reacted that she was uncomfortable with the revelation. “Did I make a mistake?” He asked finally. 

She sighed, closing her eyes before blinking them open. “No, I’m sorry. I should have known you would talk to your mum about it. I just don’t know…” she stopped, pinching the bridge of her nose with two fingers. “I don’t know what we’re going to do about it, right? And I don’t want her to be… disappointed in any way. What if she doesn’t like the decision I take? What if she feels like I’m either ruining your life or taking your choice away?” 

Of all the things Fitz loved about his relationship with Jemma, the good relationship she had with his mum was one of his favorites. And he suddenly felt a little sheepish at the idea of putting her in a difficult situation regarding said relationship. 

“I’m sorry, I should have thought about it,” he admitted, getting up to frame her hips with his hand. Jemma melted in his embrace, and Fitz felt like his heart was slowly getting back to a normal rate for the first time of the day. “But you know she will support us whatever we do, right? She told me repeatedly over the phone that it was your decision, and your body first and foremost, as if I didn’t know that already. I’m just following you here, whatever the direction you want to take. All she wants is for us to be happy. She knows how important our career is to us, and she’ll never judge us for the decision we take. No matter what that decision might be,” he emphasized. 

Jemma sighed, burrowing her face in his neck. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I’m a little stressed out.”

“You have every right to be.” Fitz kissed the top of her head, tightening his embrace around him. “You know I’ll support you whatever decision you take, right?”

Jemma stayed silent for a little while. 

“I know,” she eventually muttered against his collarbone. “But the thing is… I don’t know what to do, Fitz. It should be an easy choice, right? This is jeopardizing our careers, and all those plans we’ve made for ourselves and our future. It should be easy to just… let go. But somehow, I can’t seem to stop second guessing my choice.”

Fitz felt his heart do a little jump in his chest. He idly wondered if Jemma could feel it. “I don’t think it should be an easy decision,” he admitted finally. “I know you had all those plans for your future, and our future. But this is… this is big, Jemma. This isn’t just a “let’s just do and think about it later” decision, and to be quite honest, I’m not surprised it stayed in both our minds.”

“You’re thinking about it too?”

Fitz scoffed. “You’re pregnant with my child. Of course I’m thinking about it, Jemma.” 

When she pulled back to look at him in the eyes, her gaze was soft. “Thank you. For being here, and not freaking out as much as I thought you would. I didn’t realize how much I would need you there until you were, and I don’t know how I could have handled this entire situation without you by my side.”

Fitz thought about his father, about how he’d left and didn’t even look back. He thought about what it would feel like to leave, not knowing what a part of him and Jemma would look like, who they would grow up to be, what they would learn and how they would evolve. Fitz was pretty sure he would wonder days and nights about his child, and with a start, he realized that all the respect he had left for his father —granted, it wasn’t much— had suddenly vasnished in a single thought. 

“I could never leave you, Jemma, you know that? I’m not… I’m not him. Whatever you decide to do, I’ll stay by your side, always.”

Jemma’s gaze softened immediately. “Oh, Fitz. I know you’re not your father. I never even once doubted you were, and it didn’t even cross my mind a single time.” She sighed, letting her head fall against his shoulder once more. “I just don’t know what to do, really.”

Fitz kissed the side of her head, humming his assent quietly. 

* * *

A few months later, as Jemma looked down at her daughter and her little pink lips stretched around her breast, she couldn’t have helped the smile that split her face in two if she’d tried. 

“I cannot believe we’re top of our classes,” Fitz said absent-mindedly, playing with his daughter’s little toes. She’d been born for a total of five hours, yet he still had to take his eyes off her. She was absolutely perfect, and he didn’t think he’d ever seen something as wonderful and captivating as his five hours old baby blinking her eyes open from time to time. “And I can’t believe you managed to beat me by a few points while growing a literal human.”

Jemma’s laugh was clear, and Fitz felt his entire body warm up at the sound. “What can I say,” she muttered, never taking her eyes off her daughter, “after all, I’m the youngest prodigy here.”

Fitz could only groan in fake annoyance, his heart swelling when Jemma laughed even harder, exhausted but oh so beautiful. A few months back, the decision they’d taken had been one of the most difficult of their life. They’d had to deal with weird looks and disappointed gazes for months, standing together against what looked like literally everyone else in their life apart from Fitz’s mum. But as he looked at his little family now, Fitz realized they’d made the right choice. Alya might not have been planned, but she was certainly wanted. And now that she was there, neither Fitz nor Jemma could imagine the future without her. 

No matter what the future might hold. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> As always, you can find me on my fanfiction related twitter account [here](https://twitter.com/phlebotinxm) and on my or my [main account](https://twitter.com/KeptinOnZeBridg)! xx


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